Background:
A$2B distributor of propane engaged PPT Consulting to diagnose and correct numerous pricing and billing errors they had been experiencing within their Strategic Accounts Group. The root cause was customer master and price sheet integrity issues, as well as the timing of contract pricing set up and product deliveries. The groups planned SAP implementation would remove the Central Billing Groups ability to review and correct errors prior to invoices going to customers; as a result, the processes and controls which existed in the current and future business environment were assessed and improvements were defined and implemented.
Goals:
- Review and recommend changes to customer set-up practices.
- Review and recommend changes to the preparation of customer price sheets.
- Evaluate new procedures in SAP, with an emphasis on SAP controls over pricing.
- Ensure the Strategic Account user group is adequately trained to use SAP upon go-live.
Accomplishments / Benefits:
- Upgraded controls over pricing and customer master data to insure future integrity.
- Updated/corrected existing Master Data.
- Reduced billing errors by developing a process to automate the customer price sheet with data directly from SAP.
- Insured correct pricing set-up going forward by developing a user guide for contract creation and pricing approval within SAP .
- Streamlined the pricing approval process by creating a plan to reorganize customer accounts (bill-to / ship-to relationships).